| 1 | Phalotris shawnella |
This colourful snake was first discovered purely by accident, as scientists dug into sandy soils 500 metres away from a lake in Paraguay. To their shock, they found a vivid red snake. At first, it seemed to belong to the 15-strong Phalotris family, which have a weak venom and all live in South America. But there were several characteristics which didn’t gel with their snake memory banks. The snake below their feet had a dull red head, and a cleanly separated pale yellow collar curling around its whole neck. It was a new species, and they named it Phalotris shawnella.
The new snake lives in the Cerrado forests of San Pedro department, eastern Paraguay. By the official announcement in 2022, it was confirmed in two locations: Colonia Volendam and Laguna Blanca, about 90km apart, and both in sandy soils. Phalotris shawnella has parallel red and black stripes lower down on its body, and its head is thinner than its neck, sharpening continually until reaching a point of a nose.
The herpetologists quickly discovered a liking for lizards, as the new snake (a female which they captured) greedily gobbled up a Gymnophthalmid lizard and red-tailed vanzosaur when offered. Unfortunately, the snake then outsmarted them and managed to escape.
| 2 | Salazar’s pitviper |
This snake had the honour of being named after Salazar Slytherin from Harry Potter, the originator of Slytherin house in the deep past, who had the ability to speak the snake language Parseltongue.
In 2019, scientists were exploring the Pakke tiger reserve in India’s northernmost state, Arunachal Pradesh. The first one was spotted by Pushkar Phansalkar, resting on a cluster of creepers by the side of the road. It looked like a Trimeresurus, a 25 strong serpent family, but had an unusual rusty-red line on its face. Later analysis would show different amounts of teeth. They named it the Salazar’s pit viper, or Trimeresurus salazar.
This is probably the most intimidating new snake of the last ten years, with vertical pupils and a crafty, knowing expression. Its body was various juicy shades of green, contrasting sharply with the red. It was found to be most closely related to the Himalayan white-lipped pit viper (Trimeresurus septentrionalis), which exists at high altitudes. The Salazar’s version lives lower down (the first was found at 172 metres), so it’s possible that the two separated into islands of altitude and then evolved in separate directions.
| 3 | Instagram snake |
In 2020, scientists with all their wisdom were beaten to the punch by a random Instagrammer. Virendar Bhardwaj was bored during the coronavirus lockdown, and so started a new hobby of exploring his local wildlife. He lived in Chamba, India, and it was a remote yet fertile mountainous region, part of the dryer western region of the Himalaya.
In June 2020, he uploaded a black and white snake with glassy black eyes and a small head, and a pale pink tongue. He thought nothing of it, just admiring another character in nature – until watchful scientists took notice. This was clearly a member of the known oligodon family, famed for its brutal curved teeth, but with subtle differences.
A team marched over to Chamba and captured a male and female snake. Dissection proved that its skull shape was differently shaped, its scale count varied, and most importantly, its DNA was distinct from any known species. It was dubbed Oligodon churahensis, after the Chura valley the village of Chamba lay in. Apparently, the locals had known about the snake for years!
| 4 | Waray dwarf burrowing snake |
A snake which went unnoticed because of its burrowing lifestyle. Levitonius mirus was first discovered in the Phillipines forests of Samar and Leyte in 2006. Another was found in 2007, but both were stashed away in the archives of the University of Kansas. They remained there for years, nobody realising that it was an entirely new species. Instead, they were believed to be Pseudorabdion, another burrowing snake family.
Only a reexamination in 2014 proved that it was an entirely new family snake. Levitonius mirus or the Waray Dwarf Burrowing Snake, was just 6.7 inches long, about the size of a pencil. It had glistening, toffee brown scales with a creamy white belly.
Its behaviour was like an earthworm, surfacing from its soft soil only after heavy rains. People have probably been walking over its head for years, including the local Waray people which it was named after. The mirus part of the Latin name means “unexpected”. A rare feature is that its scales are spaced slightly apart, so that skin is visible between them. Levitonius mirus has classic burrower features such as smooth scales and small eyes.
| 5 | Weipa bandy bandy |
Another new snake to be discovered by accident. Scientists were trudging in from a hard day of sea snake research, on the Cape York coast of far north Australia. Then they spotted a black and white striped snake, sitting on a concrete block. It seemed to be a bandy-bandy, part of the Vermicella family known for burrowing and a weak venom.
They wondered why the snake was so close to sea, and decided that it had slithered over a pile of bauxite rubble waiting to be loaded onto a ship. The snake looked different to known bandy-bandys, and when they returned to Cape York in 2016, they spotted the weird snake again. This settled their mind: it was clearly a new snake altogether rather than a freaky colour morph of an existing species. The scientists entered the hunt, and traced the snake’s origins to the mining town of Weipa. There they found 5 new specimens. It was dubbed the Weipa bandy bandy, or Vermicella parscauda.
Elation then turned to worry, as bauxite mining was a big industry for the new snake’s habitat. Heavy mining equipment tearing up the landscape could spell ruin for the snake, just as it was first discovered. There may be a reason why this snake has gone unnoticed.
| 6 | Ghost snake |
This story started in 2016, when scientists were searching for a rare snake called Alluaudina mocquardi. It was originally spotted on wild limestone rocks, and it required a 25km hike to reach the old site. Seven days they spent there, in pouring rain. As they were walking a path across the limestone, a master’s student called Bernard Randriamahatantsoa bent down and picked something up.
It was a pale snake, and genetic testing later revealed it to be a whole new species, called Madagascarophis lolo. This new snake has big, bulbous eyes with a crusty colouring. Its body is pale white, which lead to the colloquial name of ghost snake. This wasn’t an entirely new family; Madagascarophis is a sizeable Madagascan family of snakes, with Madagascarophis colubrinus discovered in 1837.
It’s believed to be endemic to just two natures reserves in Madagascar: Analamerana and Ankarana. This time, there’s a logical reason why nobody’s spotted them before. They dwell in treacherous karst rock formations, and they’re a nocturnal snake, meaning that any cautious locals would never tread near them at the right time. Meanwhile, the team successfully rediscovered Alluaudina mocquardi as well.
| 7 | Suzhen’s krait |
A snake discovery starting with a death. In 2001, herpetologist Joseph B. Slowinski was killed by a serpent in northern Myanmar, which most assumed to be a many-banded krait (Bungarus multicinctus). From 2016 to 2019, researchers returned and scoured the mountainous region, discovering that the killer snake was a new species.
The black and white bands were less neat and tidy, the number of bands varied, and the teeth were differently shaped. The Suzhen’s krait (Bungarus suzhenae) was born into the world. This was the deadliest new snake species in some time, possessing similar venom quantities to its close relative the many-banded krait.
It was a grisly beginning for the snake, yet its name was the reverse. Suzhenae references Bai Su Zhen, the snake goddess of Chinese legend, who became immortal and married a human, and stood for the values of medicine, healing and true love. Like similar kraits, Bungarus suzhenae operates at night and often enters houses in search for food. Its realm is southwestern China and northern Myanmar, in rice fields and monsoon forests between 800m and 1500m.
| 8 | 5 snail-eating snakes (South America) |
In 2018, scientists announced the fruits of 2 expeditions to Peru and Ecuador. They had discovered 5 new species of snail-sucking snake, in rainforests so thick that the leaves were practically coming in through the car window. Alejandro Arteaga looked out while driving down a muddy track, and saw a strange blue-eyed snake in the undergrowth. Its body was pale yellow with rusty brown patches, and it was later dubbed Sibon bevridgelyi, a whole new species.
Snail-eating snakes live in forests, and have 70 members in total. Their jaws are flexible and have a special shape, designed for hooking into soft snails in their shells and sucking them out, inching forward bit by bit with their teeth. This sucking process can take minutes to complete.
The names of the new snakes were auctioned off in New York city, to raise money for conservation – any average Joe could have a species named after him. One was called Dipsas bobridgelyi after conservationist Bob Ridgley, while Sibon bevridgleyi was named after his late father. The former was the most endangered of the 5, detected in only 4 disjointed patches of forest, with only 2 inside protected areas. The scientists extracted DNA samples from nearly 100 museum snakes in order to confirm the new snakes as new species.
| 9 | Zugs’ odd-scaled snake |
The thick jungles of Vietnam are under just as much threat as the Amazon, logged for raw materials every day. In 2013, scientists arrived in Guang Zi Dong province (on the border with China) on a mission: to explore the country’s vast uncharted wildlife, before some of the species went extinct before anyone even knew about them. They spent their days exploring creeks and creek beds, until they found a strange-looking adult male snake. It measured 45.8cm, and was obviously a burrower, with a narrow head.
The most interesting thing was its iridescent scales. At first, they looked a dull brown, but as light shined on them they morphed from blue to green. Its iridescence didn’t match the sunbeam snake, but was in the same ballpark. The scales were also rough (keeled), and didn’t overlap, showing skin between them.
The snake clearly belonged to the odd-scaled snakes (Achalinus), a known family, but one of the most poorly researched of all. The family had 13 species, with 7 in Vietnam, and now they had found a 14th. The iridescent burrower was dubbed Zugs’ odd-scaled snake, or Achalinus zugorum.
| 10 | Uropeltis bhupathyi |
The western Ghats are found in western central India, a range not of towering peaks but rolling hills with thick forests. The Anaikatti hills are a region within them, and in 2008, a chocolatey brown snake was discovered, with the classic burrowing features of a small, narrow head and black beady eyes. It was wrongly judged to be a Uropeltis ellioti, or Elliot’s earth snake. It was discovered by Subramaniam Bhupathy, one of India’s most respected snake experts, but after he died in a tragic mountainside accident in 2014, his student V.J. Jins returned to finish his work. In 2018, he discovered that the snake was still a Uropeltis member, but different enough to be its own species – Uropeltis bhupathyi.
The belly scales were one difference: Uropeltis ellioti had 167, whereas the new snake had over 200. It also had a broader, longer head, and DNA analysis showed a clearly separate gene pool. The new snake was non-venomous, and completely non-aggressive. When picked up, it curled around the scientists’ hands rather than biting.
We’re back to a familiar story: Uropeltis bhupathyi was missed because of its burrowing nature, only emerging from its underground labyrinths during annual heavy rains. Who knows what other snakes people have been walking over?